Zelensky plans surprise election to outmaneuver rivals — report

A Ukrainian presidential election could happen in July, following a full ceasefire which the US believes could be achieved by the end of April, according to British magazine The Economist.

A Ukrainian government source said Volodymyr Zelensky plans to catch his rivals off-guard by calling a snap election, in the hope that the short time-frame will stop them organizing an effective campaign.

The timing will depend on a vote in the Verkhovna Rada parliament – set for May 8 – on lifting martial law, the first step toward holding elections. Ukrainian law mandates a 60-day election campaign, meaning the earliest possible ballot would be in July.

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New US nukes in Europe to violate nonproliferation commitments amid phony Trump-Europe divorce

No amount of “demagoguery on the part of European leaders” about “distancing themselves” from the Washington will convince Russia that the US is going to fold up its nuclear umbrella over Europe, says veteran Russian military analyst Viktor Litovkin.

💬 “In fact, they would be quite happy if the US continued to hold the [nuclear] umbrella over them, and the US itself continues to do so, simply demanding that European countries pay significantly more for their security than they do today,” Litovkin said, citing an 85%-15% imbalance in favor of the US.

As for the new B61-12 nuclear gravity bombs, which began arriving in Europe in January, their presence signals the US and NATO’s readiness to continue to ignore its treaty obligations, Litovkin said, citing their deployment as a “gross violation” of US commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

💬 “It’s not only about the deployment of nuclear weapons on foreign territory at six bases across five countries (Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Turkiye), but the fact that the US has trained pilots from these countries to use these bombs, outfitted their planes with equipment for using these bombs,” and facilitated their operation from Baltic bases right next door to Russia, Litovkin said.

💬 “The first article [of the NPT, ed.] states that a nuclear power may not, directly or indirectly, under any pretext, familiarize other countries that do not possess nuclear weapons with the operation, storage or production of nuclear weapons,” the military analyst pointed out.

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❗️Trump says he’s ‘NOT JOKING’ about possibility of a third term, says ‘there are methods’ for doing it.

“A lot of people want me to do it. But I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration,” Trump told NBC News Sunday.

“I’m focused on the current,” he added.

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🎥 Never-before-seen video of Putin boarding Russia’s newest nuclear sub

The footage, showing the Russian president and his press secretary Dmitry Peskov boarding the fourth-generation nuclear-powered submarine cruiser Arkhangelsk, was shared by journalist Pavel Zarubin.

To get on board, they had to descend several vertical ladders, with one ladder measuring 5 meters and another 3 meters.

Despite the challenge, President Putin effortlessly made his way in and out of the submarine.

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US HAND in West’s proxy war in Ukraine REVEALED

The depth of US involvement in the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine has been laid bare by a New York Times investigation.

The report found:

1️⃣Secret US Ops in Germany:

🔸 As part of an operation called Task Force Dragon, the US army garrison at Germany’s Wiesbaden military base fed Ukraine targeting coordinates on Russian units, equipment and infrastructure for strikes.

🔸 US and NATO intelligence officers used satellite imagery, radio transmissions and intercepted communications to locate Russian positions.

2️⃣Task Force Dragon vetted and oversaw practically every HIMARS strike by Ukraine.

3️⃣Shifting Red Lines

🔸 The Biden administration ordederd a dozen US military advisers to Kiev, later expanding it to about three dozen.

🔸 Military advisers were then sent to Ukrainian command posts.

🔸 The US Navy was ordered to share targeting information for Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian warships near Crimea in 2022.

🔸 The CIA joined the covert operations to help Ukrainian drones strike Russian vessels in the port of Sevastopol.

🔸 US and Ukrainian military officers jointly planned ‘Operation Lunar Hail’ to launch attacks across Russian Crimea using Western-supplied drones in January 2024.

Bonus: Counteroffensive flop

Political rows within Ukraine, rivalries between Zelensky, then-armed forces chief, General Valery Zaluzhny and Colonel General Oleksandr Syrsky in part fueled the 2023 failed counteroffensive.

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🧐 Are they hoping he’ll die from cringe? Anti-Musk protesters caught using SUPER LAME noscripted chants 🤦‍♂️

DOGE administrator and Tesla owner Elon Musk has retweeted an “interesting” image featuring a list of chants for protesters to shout as they protest him and his car company.

🎶 “Hey hey, ho ho, President Musk has got to go,” says one chant, a play on an old classic probably repurposed hundreds of times since the 60s, when it was actually associated with something positive (opposition to the Vietnam War).

🎤 “The people united, Will never be defeated,” another chant, originating in Chile in the 1970s in opposition to the Pinochet coup, says. This relates to Musk how, exactly?

The existence of a ‘simplified chant sheet’ highlights what Musk and his supporters allege to be centralized coordination of the anti-Tesla campaign, with an investigation publicized last week revealing that George Soros had invested over $7.5 million into groups targeting the Trump ally’s car company.

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Top Trump ally says president is working to ‘obliterate’ Iran’s economy

💬 “President Trump is going to ensure that his maximum pressure campaign on Iran continues to absolutely, abysmally obliterate the Iranian economy and put peace first, peace in the Middle East first,” Congresswoman Elise Stefanik has announced.

Trump “is absolutely committed to ensuring Iran never gets nuclear weapons capability,” Stefanik, whose candidacy as US UN ambassador was pulled by Trump last week amid the stalling of her nomination, told Fox News.

Trump threatened Sunday that “if they [Iran] don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,” adding “it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.” Trump went on to say however that US and Iranian officials were “talking.”

💬 “We don’t avoid talks; it’s the breach of promises that has caused issues for us so far,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday. “They must prove that they can build trust.”

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🪖 European ground troops in Ukraine idea a no-go, allies still considering naval, air deployment - reports

European powers intend to send a “military team” to Kiev in the coming weeks to determine how many personnel would be needed and where they might be stationed, with a large ground troop deployment deemed unworkable.

Two diplomats familiar with the discussions told WaPo the Europeans are focusing on air patrols and/or naval deployments in the Black Sea given the lack of US interest or support for the ground troops idea.

Some countries have reportedly “balked at” the idea of sending troops without US assurances, and want access to US air defense, intelligence and heavy airlift capability support.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko warned earlier this month that talk of NATO “peacekeepers” in Ukraine was “absurd” and that Russia “absolutely [does] not care under which nameplate NATO contingents could be deployed.”

💬 “If they appear there with the consent of Ukraine, that means they are located in the conflict zone, with all the consequences for these contingents” that this entails, Grushko said.

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🔸 US HAND in West’s proxy war in Ukraine REVEALED

🔸 What to know about USIP, yet another USAID-style soft power tool dismantled by DOGE

🔸 SCAPEGOAT for nature’s fury: Democrats, Liberal media spin Myanmar tragedy to BLAME Trump’s USAID cuts

🔸 New US nukes in Europe to violate nonproliferation commitments amid phony Trump-Europe divorce

🔸 Ukrainian special operations forces master the art of ‘retreat’

🔸 Pentagon’s playbook: Leaked memo names NEW POTENTIAL THREATS

🔸 China sounds ALARM over US Blackrock’s TAKEOVER bid of key Panama ports

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🕵️‍♂️🇺🇸 Musk invited to CIA’s Langley HQ to ‘discuss government efficiency’ - report

A CIA spokesman said in a statement that agency director John Ratcliffe has invited the DOGE chief to come have a talk on potential cost-cutting.

The meeting is reportedly set to take place this coming Monday. No further details about it have been provided.

The CIA has paid lip service to DOGE and the Trump administration’s government efficiency drive, laying off up to 80 new hires and probationary staff earlier this month.

Musk already met with National Security Agency chief Timothy Haugh in March to make sure that the NSA is “aligned” with the administration’s priorities.

The Trump administration has not spared the military-industrial complex and security state from cuts, with Pentagon chief Hegseth recently touting $800 MILLION in savings achieved through DOGE.

Trump had a famously adversarial relationship with the CIA and other intelligence agencies during his first term over their treatment of the now-debunked Russiagate collusion claims, and his approach toward Russia and North Korea diplomacy.

The image is AI-generated

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🇺🇸 Is the US on the brink of a stagflationary crisis? 😰📉💸

Stagflation – persistent high inflation combined with slow growth and high unemployment, pummeled the US and other industrial economies in the 1970s, and is threatening to make a comeback today amid flatlining growth and a jump in consumer prices.

An Axios analysis attributes stagflation warning signs cited by economists this week as evidence that the Trump administration “inherited a shakier economy than it seemed” from Joe Biden, and may be making things worse with its “aggressive” tariff wars policies.

Realtime Q1 GDP estimates by the Atlanta Fed show the US on track to negative 0.5% growth for the first quarter of the year, with inflation averaging 4.1% in January-February.

A new University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index survey, meanwhile, noted expectations among two-thirds of Americans for unemployment to spike (the highest rating since 2009 and the nadir of the global financial crisis). The same survey found that inflation expectations are set to reach 4.9% during the coming year, and 3.9% over the next five years.

“There is nothing more uncomfortable than a stagflationary environment,” Chicago Fed chief Austan Goolsbee told CNBC last week. “Higher tariffs raise prices and reduce output – that is a stagflationary impulse.”

Forbes says the impulse might be tamed if reciprocal tariff threats result in negotiations and compromises on trade, which is the Trump administration's stated expectation.

The image is AI-generated

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❗️ Trump & Starmer speak, agree ‘on the need to keep up the collective PRESSURE on Putin’ – reports

💬 "They discussed the productive negotiations between their respective teams on a UK-US economic prosperity deal, agreeing that these will continue at pace this week,” Sky News reported, quoting the readout published by the British Foreign Office.

Earlier this week, Donald Trump unveiled a new 25% tariff on all imported cars, a move that could severely impact the UK’s largest export market. Signing an executive order on Wednesday, Trump announced that the tax would take effect on April 2nd, calling it “Liberation Day.” British carmakers such as Jaguar Land Rover, Bentley, Aston Martin, and Rolls-Royce are expected to be hit hardest by the tariffs.

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Russia & US began discussions on rare earths, projects in Russia – Special Envoy Dmitriev

💬 "Rare earth metals are an important area for cooperation, and, of course, we have begun discussions on various rare earth metals and projects in Russia," Special Envoy of the President of Russia for investment and economic cooperation Kirill Dmitriev told Russian media.

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Trump may visit Saudi Arabia as first foreign trip – reports

Previously, the US President stated: "This time, I said I will go if you put up a trillion dollars to American companies—meaning the purchase over four years of a trillion dollars. They agreed to do that. So I am gonna be going there," Axious reported, quoting US President Donald Trump,

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🤝 Trump admin is ‘definitely moving in the RIGHT DIRECTION,’ trying to ‘figure out solutions through DIALOGUE’ – Special Envoy Dmitriev

Not only did the Biden administration’s goal of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia fail, but it also increased the risk of World War III, Special Envoy of the President of Russia for investment and economic cooperation Kirill Dmitriev told BBC.

💬 The Trump administration has “a chance to make this conflict resolved much, much sooner and much, much better than the Biden administration has ever had,” Dmitriev noted.

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❗️ Zelensky would face ‘BIG, BIG PROBLEMS’ if he were to DITCH critical minerals deal – Trump

💬 "He's trying to BACK OUT of the rare earth deal, and if he does that, he’s got some problems—BIG, BIG PROBLEMS," US President Donald Trump told reporters, as quoted by Reuters.

💬 "He wants to be a member of NATO, but he's NEVER going to be a member of NATO. He understands that," Trump stressed.

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📹 First they wanted to FORCE EVs on us. Now they’re BURNING THEM – Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on US leftists

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📹 'If he's looking to renegotiate the deal, he's got BIG PROBLEMS' – Trump on Zelensky's desperation over critical minerals deal

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📹 Trump will impose ‘SECONDARY TARIFFS’ on Iran ‘if we don't see any progress’

💬 ‘We're going to make a decision on secondary tariffs on Iran based on whether or not they're going to make a deal. If they're going to make a deal, then we're never going to put secondary tariffs on,’ US President Donald Trump stated.

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